Wood veneered office furniture is in widespread use in the modern office environment. Such office furniture is advantageous in that the wood veneer provides the aesthetic appearance of solid wood without its high cost. Natural wood veneers currently used in the manufacture of office and other furniture comprise thin, narrow sheets or strips (referred to as fletches) of natural wood laid side-by-side and adhesively bonded together to form larger sized veneer sheets that can be cut to desired size/shape and adhered to a suitable furniture substrate material, such as particle board. An alternative to natural veneer referred to as reconstituted veneer also is formed as a veneer sheet that can be cut to size/shape and adhered to a suitable furniture substrate material. Importantly, natural and reconstituted veneers are amenable to staining and other conventional furniture finishing operations employed to fabricate finished furniture products so that the wood veneer will aesthetically match any solid wood trim of like wood species included on the furniture and any solid wood furniture of like wood species, such as for example, solid wood chairs, that may be encountered in an office environment.
Wood veneered office furniture, such as, for example, a desk, work table, credenza, and the like, includes a flat, horizontal writing surface at which day-to-day office activities are conducted. Unfortunately, wood veneer office furniture writing surfaces have been observed to suffer damage referred to as "read through" when the surfaces are subjected to typical hand writing pressure. This damage comprises permanent indentations and scratches in the wood veneer surface caused by the localized surface pressures exerted during the act of writing using a ball point pen, pencil or other pointed writing instrument.
Although the pressure exerted during writing varies with the individual writer, most people are estimated to exert about 0.33 to 2 pounds pressure in the process of writing. If an individual uses a fine point ball point pen with a ball diameter of approximately 0.3 millimeters and applies 2 pounds of writing pressure, an equivalent writing pressure (EWP) of approximately 13,900 pounds per square inch is exerted on the writing surface. If the individual uses a writing instrument having a larger point size and/or lower writing pressure, the EWP exerted on the writing surface will be reduced. For example, for an individual using a lead pencil having an approximate point size of 0.9 millimeters and a writing pressure of 1 pound, the EWP will be about 80 pounds per square inch. Thus, the wood veneer writing surfaces can be subjected in use to a wide range of writing pressures, some of which are unexpectedly high pressures per unit surface area.
The inability of wood veneer office furniture writing surfaces to withstand the writing pressures commonly encountered in use is attributable to the inherent softness of wood as well as to the anisotropic nature of wood hardness which is known to vary considerably from one wood species to another and, for the same wood species, in dependence on the ratio of latewood (grown in the summer and the early fall) to summerwood (grown in the spring), the ratio of heartwood to sapwood, extractives content, mineral content, and other factors. As a result, wood veneer typically exhibits a wide variability in hardness across its surface. For example, an oak veneer writing surface may exhibit a higher surface hardness at regions comprising the more dense latewood, and a lower surface hardness at regions comprising the less dense earlywood. The variability of wood veneer surface hardness is even greater in other species of wood. As a result, it has been noted that even writing pressures as low as 80 pounds per square inch can result in permanent indentations in most wood veneer writing surfaces; namely, at the softer regions of the wood where earlywood is present.
Although "read through" indentations do not adversely affect the overall structural integrity of wood veneered office furniture, they are perceived by users of the furniture as detracting from its appearance and indicating a lack of durability of the furniture. In particular, "read through" damage is perceived as the primary shortcoming associated with the use of wood veneered office furniture.
Copending patent application Ser. No. 08/089,707, filed Jul. 9, 1993, of common assignee herewith and entitled "Indentation Resistant Wood and Method of Producing Same For Furniture Use" describes manufacture of indentation resistant wood veneer and other wood products. Indentation resistant wood veneer is produced by impregnating the veneer with a suitable liquid monomeric impregnant and then hot pressing the impregnated veneer to polymerize the impregnant in-situ in the wood cells, pores, channels, lumens, etc. The resulting impregnated wood veneer overcomes the primary shortcoming of the natural and reconstituted wood veneers with respect to indentation resistance.